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The visionary Czech writer Karel Capek (1890-1938), one of the century's great authors, first gained fame during the 1920s and 1930s when his short stories, novels, satires, journalism, children's books, and plays made him the most important writer in his native country. War With the Newts, one of the great dystopian satires of the century, is about the discovery by a Dutch sea-captain of a race of giant, intelligent, talking, and walking newts. When humans begin to exploit the newts as slaves, the creatures organize to fight the oppression, taking up arms and challenging the humans for control of newt destiny and freedom.
Customer Reviews:
Don't want to be here when it happens.......2007-01-16
Literally fabulous, this novel belongs in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and his yahoos, as well as in its contemporary's Orwell and "Animal Farm". It is a wild dystopia where, as always, human folly and ambition produce a catastrophe. The main note of the book is an excellent black humor, a permanent mockery which spares no one: Capitalism, science, academy, journalism, Hollywood, nationalistic identities, but above all Totalitarianism, already present in human history when Capek wrote in the 1930's.
Captain Van Toch, a merchant of whatever in Indonesia, discovers one day a species of newts (tritons-salamanders) whom he trains to fish for pearls. They are intelligent and gentle creatures, dispossessed of individuality, whose females reproduce with no sexual intercourse (like has been recently discovered about dragons of Komodo). Van Toch reveals his discovery to his fellow Czech, the millionaire entrepreneur Bondy, with whose help he launches his pearl business in a grand scale. Newts are transplanted to numerous litorals throughout the world, and soon the "Salamander Syndicate" finds out that newts are useful for many purposes, like building dams, repairing ships inside the water, and other industrial tasks. Newts reproduce by the billions and soon there are more of them than humans. Also very soon, politically correct groups appear, demanding a decent treatment as well as education and health for the poor things. Until one day, the humanized newts rebell against us. Several incidents start building up a World War after which humans are relegated to mountain tops and all the world becomes a giant artificial litoral where newts live and prosper. At the end, Capek can only guess that some day newts will become so human that they will develop national identities, rivalries, and war between themselves.
Profoundly disturbing, funny, and cynical, this novel is composed of tales, scientific reports, philosophical essays, press clippings and other literary devices. Now that we seem to be eager to play with genetics and artificial intelligence, it wouldn't be bad if leaders of the world read this jewel of intuition and anticipation and reflected about science, technology and business. Besides, they would have much fun. Totally recommended.
The Global Perspective.......2005-12-06
War with the Newts is an excellent example of the work of Karel Capek, one of the Czech Republic's most beloved authors. In many ways, the book reads like a traditional sci-fi novel, telling of the rise of a species of giant lizards and its eventual conflict with mankind. However, several things set it apart from the rest of its genre.
For one thing, though there are four or five notable characters in the book, you never really see any of them for more than about four chapters. The main players in the novel are not individual people but countries; much of the book is written from a global perspective, in terms of the reactions of countries, societies, and the whole world as they are introduced to the newts.
The book is also notable for its humor. The dry, subtle gibes give the work a similar feel to the novels of British author Terry Pratchett. The comedy comes not only from the tone of the writing style itself, but also in the form of the characters (both individual and regional), whose slightly ridiculous portrayal makes them seem quite human indeed, just like any one of us.
The book is not merely for sci-fi enthusiasts. The reactions to the newts - human, economic, political, and otherwise - are chillingly familiar. In them we see accurate reflections of current and past social climates. This novel is equally valuable from a sociological perspective, or even as an insight into human nature itself. In this grim view of the future, we see our own past and present.
Deadly, dark satire.......2005-07-26
Capek's question, asked around 1935, is a simple one: what if we found someone new to enslave?
He envisions the perfect servant: some dark wog, identifiably sub-human, who lives to work, and who can never supplant our [Western] culture...
And who better to take it from us. The story drags early on, but it builds up a clear notion of the Newts as a legitimate citizens of Nation Earth. Capek spends some time recapitulating the slaughter, love, and other complexities that bring the Newts from jungle obscurity to world prominence - reminiscent of Ebola and AIDS emerging from other jungles not so long after.
He the brings the Newts up into his 20th century. The satirist's mind became satyric at the point, eager to prick the fulsome expanse of German nationalism or to penetrate the legs crossed over America's internal outsiders, Black Americans. Capek allows apologists of many different nationalisms in many ways, but they all show up wanting.
Simple, hard-working, and certain, the Newts prevail. The author struggles, in a self-conscious final chapter, over a happy ending. He finally fails, and we are left to wonder about Newtworld.
It's satire and commentary, but also science-oriented SF. Suppose these beings became available? What then? Capek's answers are very true, but very ugly.
//wiredweird
And I Stood Upon the Sand of the Sea.......2005-04-14
and Saw a Beast Rise up Out of the Sea.
This apocalyptic vision from the book of Revelations is a fitting introduction to Karel Capek's dystopian masterpiece, War With the Newts. Capek described in an interview how the idea for War With The Newts came to him and serves as a good synopsis of the book:
"I had written the sentence, 'You mustn't think that the evolution that gave rise to us was the only evolutionary possibility on this planet. . . . that cultural developments could be shaped through the mediation of another animal species. If the biological conditions were favorable, some civilization not inferior to our own could arise in the depths of the sea. . . . Would it do the same stupid things mankind has done? Would it invite the same historical calamities? What would we say if some animal other than man declared that its education and its numbers gave it the sole right to occupy the entire world and hold sway over all creation?" Out of this thought process War With the Newts Was Born.
The plot is straightforward. The master of a tramp steamer, Captain van Toch, comes across a rather curious breed of newts in an isolated lagoon near Sumatra. He discovers that they are intelligent and capable of communication. They lack, however, the ability to open easily oysters for food because of their short arms. He takes a knife and shows them how to use it. Next thing you know they have used his knife to open thousands of oysters, enough to provide the newts with food and the Captain with a large supply of pearls. Captain van Toch takes groups of newts and plants them in lagoons across the coastlines and lagoons of Asia. They are extraordinarily industrious. Before long newts become a worldwide rage. Every nation in the world uses newts to perform Herculean tasks of underwater and coastal development. The newts do not demand salaries. They merely ask for heavy equipment and munitions to facilitate these underwater projects. In short order the manufacture and supply of arms and equipment for newts becomes the single most important part of the world's economy.
Despite some increasingly violent skirmishes between newts and man no nation is willing to cease providing weapons to the newts. Before long the newts revolt, led by the Great Salamander (an apparent parody of Hitler), and announce that they will start destroying the earth, continent by continent in order to provide more coastline for the growing newt population. Despite this threat the nations of the earth continue to provide arms to the newts. The resultant battle is over quickly. Mountains are leveled, continents are turned into a series of islands and what is left of man finds its way to the Alps, or Rocky Mountains, or Himalayas.
As the story concludes, the author engages in a dialogue with himself and asks himself whether this is the end of man. After a great deal of soul searching he responds that perhaps the newts will take on all of the characteristics of the human race and find a way to destroy themselves. When that day occurs, perhaps humanity will recover what it gave away so readily.
War With the Newts is a fascinating book on many levels. The idea that the story is premised on the notion of concurrent evolutionary trends predates much landmark work that has been done since the book was written. It is also important to note that War With the Newts was written in 1936. The Nazis had obtained full control of Germany, Mussolini's fascists ruled Italy, and Stalin's purges were in full swing. Capek was devoted to the new Czech Republic and was an ardent proponent of the ideals of democracy. By 1936 the rest of Europe had already taken many strides down the road to appeasement. Capek's pessimistic vision of the fate of humanity is well grounded in contemporary events. War With the Newts may be viewed as much as a parable of contemporary events as a foretelling of a dark future. Finally, Capek is an excellent writer. His prose is full of wit and wry diversions. His chapter on the mating habits of the newts struck me as a classic parody of the human mating habits of his contemporary Aldous Huxley in Brave New World.
The following excerpt from a poem written by Capek after the bombing of the town of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War serves as a fitting summation of the world view that permeates War With the Newts.
When this century collapses, dead at last,
and its sleep within the dark tomb has begun,
come, look down upon us, world, file past
and be ashamed of what our age has done.
Inscribe our stone, that everyone may see
what this dead era valued most and best:
science, progress, work, technology
and death - but death we prized above the rest.
Almost seventy years after its publication the message of War With the Newts still resonates.
Capek's War With the Newts is a wonderful, thought provoking book.
A Novel Still Worth Reading.......2004-08-18
Though perhaps best known for coining the word "robot" in his wonderful play R.U.R., Capek also wrote a number of stories and novels. Of his novels, War With the Newts is probably the best known. And with good reason. It is an excellent story.
Flirting with the apocalyptic tradition in science fiction, this novel tells the story of the discovery of large, intelligent sea creatures off a small island "west of Sumatra." Initially curiosities, their intelligence makes them excellent workers for underwater projects for humans. Unfortunately for humans, these creatures are in fact quite smart enough and, over the course of a few years, develop to the point where they can challenge people for the domination of the earth. Which they do quite effectively.
Written in a number of styles--journalistic and scientific in addition to straightforward prose that switches points of view--it is very engaging. Granted, the prose is a little more formal as befits a novel written in the 1930's and the translator has kept that formal feeling but I am quite fond of this style. And Capek's perceptive examination of the politics of this period in his tale of newts and man is impressive.
Capek is often thought of as a science fiction writer but, as is the case with many writers of this genre, his appeal is much wider. Otherwise, why would his novels and plays still be read nearly 80 years later. Anyone with a taste for good, intellectual writing would enjoy this novel.
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War with the Newts
Manufacturer: bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FB49K6 |
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War with the Newts
Karel Capek
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000JF54JI |
Average customer rating:
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War with the Newts
Manufacturer: Berkley Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HI5ZM8 |
Customer Reviews:
This is how D&D novels are meant to be done.......2006-05-26
I've read quite a few novels set in the various Dungeons and Dragons campaign settings, and even now I shudder to think of how horribly some of them missed the mark. From the horrendously bad writing of "Greatheart", to the completely out of place and very non-D&D style of "Master of Chains", TSR and Wizards of the Coast have pumped out some of the most thoroughly unreadable novels ever. There was a time, however, when writers were able to both capture the essence of a pulse-pounding session of Dungeons and Dragons and write a good book. In this instance, that time was 1988, when Kate Novak and Jeff Grub authored the highly entertaining "Azure Bonds".
As most D&D adventure invariably do, the story starts in a tavern, that place where all adventurers eventually end up to unload their hard earned gold and down some much needed ale. The main character, Alias, awakens after a night of drunken revelry to discover a magical blue tattoo has been branded on her arm and a good portion of the past year has been erased from her memory. The majority of the novel is centered on Alias' attempts to discover what the tattoo is, and why her memory is gone, along with all the trouble she manages to get herself in along the way. Grubb and Novak do a superb job of weaving all the best parts of D&D into the storyline. The sense of mystery felt while the characters work to discover the major players of the story and their motivations, the adventure of tromping through a dungeon or going toe-to-toe with a group of brigands, the camaraderie and banter experienced between the individual members of the group, all are masterfully blended into this fantasy tale.
The characters presented are all interesting and never become too stereotypical or boring. The lizardman named Dragonbait is a silent enigma, seemingly a simple and harmless creature, until danger presents itself and he springs into action. Dragonbait harbors a secret calling that those familiar with D&D will probably guess early on. Akabar, a wizard hailing from far south of the Sword Coast, is an interesting addition to the party in that he actually isn't a battle mage brimming with fireball and meteor spells, or even an adventurer by trade. One of the best characters is the halfing who calls herself Olive Ruskettle. Unlike in most games based novels, the halfling of the group isn't a pint sized Jar-Jar Binks. While she certainly does add some comic relief, it is never over done, and she isn't a stupid character. True to her roguish trade, she looks out for herself first, the size and weight of her money pouch second, and nothing else third.
The antagonists of the story are equally as interesting as the heroes, but unfortunately as there are five of them, and the book is only 380 pages long, not nearly enough time is devoted to developing them or showing the reader their motivations and abilities. Perhaps if Azure Bonds had been split into two novels this could have been avoided. My only other real complaint about the book is its treatment of Elminster, the sage of Shadowdale. Most Forgotten Realms novels present Elminster and his scribe Lhaeo as a couple of court jesters or buffoons. I suppose that after millennia of existence, and housing enough magical knowledge within himself be of near godlike power, he might go a little barmy, but honestly I've always pictured Elminster as a wizened old wizard who would have a very high level of maturity and work his will in the Realms through influence, suggestion, and when necessary, his servants or secret agents.
Azure Bonds is a D&D novel done the way it's meant to be. Whether you're new to Forgotten Realms novels or have already waded through all the trash in search of those hidden gems, this book is something you should definitely pick up.
One of the best AD&D novel........2004-11-05
I read this book about 10 years ago and recently had to scan a chapter or two for infos about the Forgotten realms to make some preparation for an upcoming AD&D game. I first planned just to re-read some parts of it but finally got trapped in it and I swallowed the whole book once again ! A true TSR classic.
An enjoyable start to a great trilogy.......2000-10-18
While I enjoyed the Finder's Stone Trilogy very much, Azure Bonds did not immeadiately grab my enthusiasm. But after a couple of chapters I was hooked. Novak and Grubb are a great team.
If you like fantasy stories, check this one out. At the very least you won't be disappointed you read the book.
A fascinating storyline.......2000-03-23
This book is one of the best Sci-Fa I have ever read. The books lets you in to the head of the heroine - Alias and lets you share her travels and quest to descover her own history, one that apparntly many other people and creatures doesn't want her to find out ! A great storyline and Imagination makes you stretch your own mind as does Alias's and be suprised at the discoveries - just like her.
A MUST to any Sci-Fa reader.
A wonderful Mystery/Adventure.......2000-02-04
This was a very entertaining read, full of wonderful characters and great action. The Book was a swift read, and kept my attention, I really didn't want to put it down. The villains weren't cut-outs, they had some starch to their caniving plots. I especially liked the mystery, and the confusing clues as to what is really going on. If you can find this one, pick it up at once.
Customer Reviews:
Best of the forgotten realms Sagas.......2001-09-07
For those of you who have wondered if D&D was simply Hack & Slash this will give you a true insight of the game. It truely is one of the best fantasy books I've read. This book and those of the forgotten realms are good solid reading matierial and though some may consider it "Bubble Gum" I don't.
Well designed example of the "enigma" adventure.......2000-05-02
At last, the huge module (96 pages!) that covers the adventure of Alias in the Forgotten Realms - the heroes (levels 6-9) awaken to find curious blue sigils wrapped around their skin - what could this mean? Worse, their "mark of Cain" makes them VERY intriguing to some horrific evil that they'd rather not contend with... this adventure will teach your players paranoia in a way that only life-threatening fun ever could. :)
THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!.......1998-10-20
I read this book and I loved . this is a book for all fantasy lovers and it is good for anyone who doesn't have anything better to do as well.I liked the characters and how the author made them seem like real people. I also play AD&D so I can relate to this boook. this book can only be described by one phrase. THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!.
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Curse of the Azure Bonds
n/a
Manufacturer: Strategic Simulations
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Pamphlet
ASIN: B000LPX70E |
Product Description
ALL THREE BOOKS OF THE FORGOTTEN REALMS TRILOGY FINDER'S STONE BK 1 AZURE BONDS , BK2 WYVERN'S SPUR , BK3 SONG OF THE SAURIALS
Average customer rating:
- randomness, dysfunction, and a whole lot of crazy
- Enjoyable, but hardly what I call a comic
- Too Much Talk for My Tastes
- 17 years later this is still a great book
- Why I love Saturn
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Why I Hate Saturn
Kyle Baker
Manufacturer: Vertigo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0930289722 |
Customer Reviews:
randomness, dysfunction, and a whole lot of crazy.......2007-06-25
A fun read. The main character (who is the least self-aware of the bunch) is set as the observer which makes for a style of story telling that feels very chaotic and random but yet really works well. The artwork is great.....very frenetic but also very playful.
Enjoyable, but hardly what I call a comic.......2007-06-24
This book has characters that are fun to read and an appealingly madcap plot. Those are the good things, and they're quite good.
It also has problems, though. The dialogue tries to be snappy and witty. Sometimes it succeeds, but more often it only half-succeeds, like a moderately funny joke someone tells you at a party, the kind where you go, "Ha, ha," and smile. The sort of joke that's not funny enough for a real laugh, but not so bad that you feel justified in shaming the teller with stony silence. So yeah, that's kind of how a lot of this book is.
The biggest problem, though, is that this isn't really a comic (or graphic novel) in the sense I usually use the term. Except for a few chapter title pages and one sort of diagram thing, all it is is pictures with CAPTIONS under them. The text of the captions is either dialogue or the internal monologue of the protagonist. There isn't any integration between the text and the images; they are always separated by the neat little borders around the drawings.
In theory, this is an interesting twist on the typical word-bubbles-etc. comic format, but in practice it doesn't work here. Probably the biggest flaw is that most of the pictures are just pictures of people's heads as they're talking to each other. Sure, the facial expressions are sort of interesting, but for the most part I found myself just reading the text. I sometimes had to force myself to stop and look at the pictures, and, although they're well-drawn, they don't really add anything most of the time.
Still, this isn't a bad book. I think I might have liked it a good bit more if it were just presented as a traditional novella or short story --- just text, no pictures. The art is competent but repetitive and basically superfluous.
Too Much Talk for My Tastes.......2007-05-16
There's lot of amusing insights into relationships here, combined with visuals by a very gifted artist.
Unfortunately, the relationships ring hollow to me -- I just don't believe in Anne, Ricky, and what's-her-name as real people. They seem designed mainly for humour.
The early part of the book is non-stop talking heads with little or no plot or action. The early chapters could be interchanged without much problem. The visuals liven up the succession of heads, but I found the artwork a little too lively; with shots from every angle, and expressions jumping from joy to angst in rapid succession.
The latter half of the book livens up with Anne's trip to LA and San Francisco. There was some action, and events that I could believe in.
The road-trip elements at the end of the book might suggest "Thelma and Louise", but I believe this book was first published before the movie (?).
17 years later this is still a great book.......2007-04-17
I got this when it first came out, and I reread it every so often. I was curious to set more about the book on the internet, and it's still in print! The only thing that makes it not so good, he did not write a sequel.
Why I love Saturn.......2006-01-18
This is really lots of fun, a book you'll wanna talk about with your friends. From the physical perspective, it's a very nice comic book, one of the coolest ones published by Vertigo in the 90s. Kyle Baker is responsible for both the argument and the drawings, which are specially expressive. The text that supports it all is absolutelly solid - catchy, funny, as intelligent as all good humour manifestations should be. The characters' somehow orthodox view on the modern society, the groupies' tendencies, interpersonal relashionships (love, sex, friendship, family) is f*** surreal, yet very centered and amazingly logical, and the whole development of the story leads to unexpected, delightful happenings which aren't as important as the dialogues in the middle of it all. It's hard to begin it and not to finish it in one take. Try it and you'll love Saturn.
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Why I Hate Saturn
Kyle Baker
Manufacturer: Pirhana Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LGRXNU |
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Why I Hate Saturn
Kyle Baker
Manufacturer: PIRANHA PRESS PUBLICATIONS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000U27BUA |
Book Description
This book will be your guide through these difficult years in your teen’s life. It's not a “how-to” manual or a ten-step guidebook. Rather, the principles and essentials discussed within the pages are designed to equip your teen to live and share God’s design for highly healthy life—a balance of physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual health.
Customer Reviews:
God's Design for the Highly Healthy Teen.......2006-08-12
This is a winner! A very well-rounded, comprehensive book that focuses not only on the physical health, but the spiritual, emotional and relational/social aspects of health. This book is very eye-opening, and helps parents to really look at where their child has strengths, and also where they have weaknesses that can effect their overall health. It is encouraging, practical and very insightful.
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Plan De Dios Para Un Adolescente Saludable/ God's Design for the Highly Healthy Teen
Walt, M.D. Larimore , and
Mike Yorkey
Manufacturer: Vida Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0829748083 |
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